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To: Kent Rattey who wrote (39841)	9/6/1999 12:29:00 AM
From: Kent Rattey	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 152472

From the September 6, 1999, issue of Wireless Week Standard Pursues Handset Profits Sleek Designs For PCS Phones Aimed At Youth Market By Ed Lopez As a manufacturer of pagers, Standard Telecom America Inc. has savored the sweetness of success. Its sleek and stylish Nixxo Platinum pager has been featured in back-to-school promotions by Calvin Klein and Pepsi. The Platinum and Nixxo Titanium pagers are lauded as top industry products. Now, hoping to parlay its success in pagers, Standard plans to enter the highly competitive market for wireless phones when it introduces its Nixxo PCS handset this month at PCS '99. "The opportunity is so great," explained David Kim, the company's controller. "The profit margins are better and there is fast growth in [personal communications services]." Standard's venture into handsets is a sign of how rapid growth in the industry has prompted many companies to reassess their strategies, or consider new ways to take advantage of burgeoning demand for wireless services. Yet not everyone is as confident as Kim that Standard can transfer its pager successes to a new product line. Bryan Prohm, an analyst with Dataquest, said established companies such as Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. have carved out a strong position in the market and even a company such as Philips, with a strong consumer-electronics identity, had problems cracking the handset market. "It's a pretty competitive space," Prohm said. As Kim sees it, Standard brings a number of strengths to the phone market: technology prowess, a track record for meeting delivery timetables and product quality at a reasonable price. Standard faces formidable competitors in the handset market, including Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson Inc., Audiovox Communications Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. Will carriers be receptive to signing up another phone supplier? Standard is wagering that they will. Standard believes product design will be its calling card. The company has a marketing team and consultants to aid the design process. "Design and quality and a reasonable price--I think that's what will affect the youth market," Kim said. The dimensions of the code division multiple access Nixxo PCS are 1.69 by 4.13 by 0.89 inches. The handset weighs just over 3.5 ounces. It has four hours of talk time and 100 hours of standby time. Although the Nixxo PCS phone will be introduced next month, Standard plans to ship 1900 MHz and 800 MHz CDMA phones in the United States in the second quarter of next year. Its South Korean parent company, Standard Telecom Co., started shipping PCS phones to Korean Telecommunications Free-Tel in July. Standard also is developing a global system for mobile communications phone but has no plans for a time division multiple access handset. "Looking at the way CDMA has been gaining in recognition, we think that CDMA is the future for the industry," Kim said.